Okay folks....this one is a real classic. We
were sitting under the porch of the Lowe's / Stewart's house in Gorgona
Beach one weekend. Kicked back and relaxing, when all of a sudden,
Rick Livingston came running up to the house and said his van had pooped
out on the beach. We all jumped into Doug Allen's Toyota Land
Cruiser and hit the beach. Problem was, the tide was coming in big
time!! Rick's van was about half way down to the Chamé River, which
we and the surfers called "Malibu". By the time we got to
where the van was, the surf was rolling over the roof. We tried many
different ways to rescue the van, but Que Va!! Mother Ocean wanted
it. We sat there and watched the van literally roll in the waves. We
started heading back to Gorgona, and the Land Cruiser's fuel pump
died. Oh boy!!!! Was this going to be a double whammy from old
Mother Ocean? This was like big time survival stuff now! The
waves were lapping the tires of the Land Cruiser and we had far to go and
no more top beach to go. This Cruiser was going to eat it.
Great brains, a Panama Beer quart bottle and a hose saved the
day. It was do or die. Gas was sucked out to the tank
into the beer bottle, then the beer bottle was hooked up to the carburetor
hose. A couple of shakes to the bottle and crank it up! The
Cruiser started and went forward until the gas ran out. We did this
for many hours, until we found a place we could get the Cruiser up to dry
and safe land. We sat there and sucked up the rest of the beer
waiting for a second rescue team to come. We had sent one of our
team back for help. I was now dark and we saw some lights
coming. Great!!! We were rescued. This was Sunday night
now and we were supposed to be back to the Zone by now. Just out of curiosity, Doug hooked all his hoses back up and tried to start the
Cruiser. HA!! It started and ran fine! We drove it back
to the house and then home to the Zone. We figure that we overheated
it trying to get the van out of the surf and the fuel pump quit.
What a day, but this was just another day for a happy HoDaddy at the beach
in paradise.....Photo by BillMac - August 1973